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Point of View: Expanding Medicaid will make us healthier, help rural hospitals

By Jay JohnsonLast week, a coalition of patients, nurses, doctors and families across the state launched a campaign to give voters the chance to decide whether Oklahoma should expand Medicaid. After years of inaction on this issue, the emergence of t

Last week, a coalition of patients, nurses, doctors and families across the state launched a campaign to give voters the chance to decide whether Oklahoma should expand Medicaid. After years of inaction on this issue, the emergence of this campaign and its broad-based support is a game changer that will dominate much of the debate over the next year.

As the CEO of a rural hospital, I can testify the status quo isn’t sustainable — it’s hurting families and driving up health care costs. Oklahomans are sending billions of tax dollars to Washington, D.C., which should come back to our communities to pay for health care, create thousands of jobs and put money back into our local economy. A failure to act makes no sense.

Nearly 200,000 Oklahomans don’t have access to affordable care. Many ranchers, farmers and small-business employees work jobs that don’t come with insurance, and they often face an impossible choice — do we pay for health care or put food on the table? These families have been waiting nearly a decade for a solution and the consequences of our inaction have in some cases been dire. But all of us win under Medicaid expansion. Bringing our money back from Washington would help lower health care costs and keep our rural hospitals open.

When people without insurance get sick, they frequently wait until their condition has deteriorated before seeking treatment, often winding up in the emergency room. That uncovered cost comes out of your pocket in the form of higher prices. Medicaid expansion will make health care more affordable for all of us.

In the past three years, eight rural hospitals in Oklahoma have declared bankruptcy and six have closed. As too many towns already know, a hospital closing devastates a small community. People lose their jobs and even more lose access to health care. Families are left to travel long distances to the nearest hospital. When someone has a stroke or heart attack, that travel time can be the difference between life and death.

Here’s the really crazy part: 36 states are already getting the benefits of Medicaid expansion. Many are conservative states like Oklahoma. They’re getting the tax dollars, the jobs, the economic boost and the added support for rural hospitals — and we’re getting left behind.

A line in a song from the award-winning Broadway musical "Oklahoma!" tells us that Oklahomans are known for the ability to work together for the common good. The famous line, “Territory folks should stick together,” still has meaning. As the Oklahomans Decides campaign puts this issue in front of us, let’s remember our heritage and stick together to improve the state for everyone.

Johnson is president and CEO of Duncan Regional Hospital and chairman of the board of the Oklahoma Hospital Association.